‘The criminal conviction of a campaigner is to be quashed after prosecutors admitted an undercover police officer gave evidence in a court case using a fake identity. Michael Gracia’s conviction for assaulting an officer during a pro-cycling demonstration is to be overturned as prosecutors conceded one of the co-defendants at his original trial was working undercover for the police.’

‘There is room for argument over whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is too cautious in referring suspected miscarriages of justice to the Court of Appeal, as the Commons Justice Committee has said.’

‘A criminal appeals charity run by lawyers has applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to be a regulated legal practice, and could become the first charity to become a traditional law firm in its own right.’

‘Innocent victims of miscarriages of justice are “languishing in jail” due to delays and faults in the case review system, according to MPs behind a hard-hitting report to be published this week.’
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‘A man who spent 17 years in prison for attempted rape before having his conviction quashed on the basis of a DNA test is suing the miscarriage of justice watchdog for negligence. It is claimed the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) repeatedly failed to undertake forensic analysis of the victim’s clothing, instead relying on the assurances of the same police force that investigated the case.’

‘The “innocent man wrongly imprisoned who fights a valiant struggle to secure his freedom” is a long used trope in our culture. The hero is normally a sympathetic figure, heroically taking on the establishment.’

‘Footballer Ched Evans is still looking for a new club after being released from prison last October, having served half of a five-year sentence for the rape of a 19-year-old woman in a hotel in May 2011.’

‘New scientific evidence casts fresh doubt on the conviction of a nurse who was jailed for a minimum of 30 years for murdering four elderly women and attempting to kill another, according a TV investigation.’

‘In April 2012 Ched Evans, the former Wales and Sheffield United striker, was convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room in Rhyl, Denbighshire. It is a shocking and a wholly unacceptable crime for him to have committed.’

‘Serial killer nurses often gain notoriety among their colleagues before their crimes are exposed because they hold detailed morbid conversation with grieving relatives, new research into the characteristics of so-called “angels of death” has found.’